“Does a forest know grief?” I love this question. Got me in such a philosophical frame of mind. Grief is a powerful thing, something we experience when something is gone forever,and forests have this ability to regenerate and regrow in ways that we can’t. So I wonder if and how they experience it. Loss, sure, sadness, perhaps, but grief? I don’t know! I’ll be sitting with this one for a while, I think. Thanks for your wonderful words, as always.
I've always liked trees better than most people. There is so much governments could do: mandate smaller houses, lots large enough for a tree or two, bring back "victory gardens", refuse building permits for arrable land, mandate greywater systems and rainwater collection. In default of leadership by governments, those of us who care have to lead the way.
Thanks for this essay. Don’t be one person. That’s great advice, be together and work with others, the only way to make change happen. And now I’m going to read that 1972 article about whether trees have “standing”. Kind of funny word juxtaposition— trees are the ones that have been standing for the longest time!
This was such a beautiful essay. I’m going to have to read ‘Overstory’ now. Another Forest book i recommend is ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ by Peter Wholleben. It goes in-depth about the community of trees & how they communicate with each other.
I loved this post. Subscribed to some new peeps compliments of your roundup, and one thing to add (from a beekeeper who loves all the pollinators): Honeybees can’t pollinate everything. We desperately need all the wild pollinators from birds to bees, to butterflies. Bumble bees pollinate tomatoes and potatoes in a way only they can. We desperately need them all.
You're the soul of consistency, Jason. Your essays are invariably excellent. This one no less so. It's a hard time to be a forest. The best of times with all that yummy carbon dioxide available. The worst of times with fires, floids, uprooting storms, invasive species of all sorts coming north to disrupt the forest community transport systems. And worst of the worst there are us, who deprive the forest of the absolutely fundamental resource: volume in space/time/energy. In my religion, there are four major Bodhisattvas who arose from the earth, but none devoted to the protection of non-human life, much less the forest. That's a deficit that cries for remedy and Anthropocene religions in general are in need of overhaul.
I just read Powers' book a few weeks ago and it is still on my mind. I think you would also like "Tree, A life Story" by David Suzuki. Not fiction, but a lyrical journey of a Douglas fir's life.
Jason, thanks for another beautiful, lyrical thought- and emotion- provoking exploration. Your words and photos here form their own network of mycelia!
I haven’t yet read The Overstory or Sumana Roy’s book, but they’re now on my ‘read soon’ list! Also, for more on the ground- breaking work (and life) of forester / researcher Suzanne Simard, check out B Frank’s Substack “Water into Stone” from March 29th! 🌲
Thanks, Jason. I like this long easy meditation on trees, time, and human thinking. It goes well with the process of knowing nature in order to know what nature requires in order to thrive, and so what our western-type decision systems need to incorporate as the rights of nature.
It also goes well with the idea that knowing what natural intelligence fully is may be the best guide for the beneficial development of artificial intelligence.
Beautiful piece, Jason. So much to admire here. “Don’t be one person” — yes. I just began serializing a short story that I wrote from “empathy and respect for a forest.” Trees have long fascinated me, both intellectually and at the level of soul. Here’s part 1 of my story, written from the POV of a maple tree under threat from a pipeline (based on a true story, sadly): https://open.substack.com/pub/buildinghope/p/heartwood-part-1?r=4cg2x&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
“Does a forest know grief?” I love this question. Got me in such a philosophical frame of mind. Grief is a powerful thing, something we experience when something is gone forever,and forests have this ability to regenerate and regrow in ways that we can’t. So I wonder if and how they experience it. Loss, sure, sadness, perhaps, but grief? I don’t know! I’ll be sitting with this one for a while, I think. Thanks for your wonderful words, as always.
I've always liked trees better than most people. There is so much governments could do: mandate smaller houses, lots large enough for a tree or two, bring back "victory gardens", refuse building permits for arrable land, mandate greywater systems and rainwater collection. In default of leadership by governments, those of us who care have to lead the way.
Thanks for this essay. Don’t be one person. That’s great advice, be together and work with others, the only way to make change happen. And now I’m going to read that 1972 article about whether trees have “standing”. Kind of funny word juxtaposition— trees are the ones that have been standing for the longest time!
This was such a beautiful essay. I’m going to have to read ‘Overstory’ now. Another Forest book i recommend is ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ by Peter Wholleben. It goes in-depth about the community of trees & how they communicate with each other.
These are glorious thoughts about community. They've taken root in a wonderful way, and I'll be turning them over and over for days.
Thank you.
I loved this post. Subscribed to some new peeps compliments of your roundup, and one thing to add (from a beekeeper who loves all the pollinators): Honeybees can’t pollinate everything. We desperately need all the wild pollinators from birds to bees, to butterflies. Bumble bees pollinate tomatoes and potatoes in a way only they can. We desperately need them all.
I go back to some of the ideas in that book a lot, most particularly, "What does green want of us?"
Redwoods and their Spirits
https://substack.com/home/post/p-143419807
You're the soul of consistency, Jason. Your essays are invariably excellent. This one no less so. It's a hard time to be a forest. The best of times with all that yummy carbon dioxide available. The worst of times with fires, floids, uprooting storms, invasive species of all sorts coming north to disrupt the forest community transport systems. And worst of the worst there are us, who deprive the forest of the absolutely fundamental resource: volume in space/time/energy. In my religion, there are four major Bodhisattvas who arose from the earth, but none devoted to the protection of non-human life, much less the forest. That's a deficit that cries for remedy and Anthropocene religions in general are in need of overhaul.
I just read Powers' book a few weeks ago and it is still on my mind. I think you would also like "Tree, A life Story" by David Suzuki. Not fiction, but a lyrical journey of a Douglas fir's life.
Jason, thanks for another beautiful, lyrical thought- and emotion- provoking exploration. Your words and photos here form their own network of mycelia!
I haven’t yet read The Overstory or Sumana Roy’s book, but they’re now on my ‘read soon’ list! Also, for more on the ground- breaking work (and life) of forester / researcher Suzanne Simard, check out B Frank’s Substack “Water into Stone” from March 29th! 🌲
Thanks, Jason. I like this long easy meditation on trees, time, and human thinking. It goes well with the process of knowing nature in order to know what nature requires in order to thrive, and so what our western-type decision systems need to incorporate as the rights of nature.
It also goes well with the idea that knowing what natural intelligence fully is may be the best guide for the beneficial development of artificial intelligence.
Beautiful piece, Jason. So much to admire here. “Don’t be one person” — yes. I just began serializing a short story that I wrote from “empathy and respect for a forest.” Trees have long fascinated me, both intellectually and at the level of soul. Here’s part 1 of my story, written from the POV of a maple tree under threat from a pipeline (based on a true story, sadly): https://open.substack.com/pub/buildinghope/p/heartwood-part-1?r=4cg2x&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web